Thursday, September 30, 2004

hmmm

Well after battling a 5 day bug we have overcome!! Who-hoo, it feels good to be alive again!

It is funny what you think about while you're down and out. You start to think about the old life as if it were some uptopia, some distant memory of a love once shared...a love between you and "normalcy." You sure learn to appreciate the simple things again, like eating! Wow it sure is nice to eat...so good. And just moving around. We take moving our bodies so for granted. When you're ill it is all you can do to walk from room to room. And dont get me started on trying to take care of a child while ill. I remember lying in bed around 5am thinking "It doesnt matter how tired I am...when she wakes up Im on duty. Period." And then crying myself to sleep....(well not really, but just about.)

Hurricane Jeanne rolled thru during our own personal "storm." I tell you what, those folks in Florida sure have had it tough lately. Living in the Southeast we get the leftovers of their messes and even the leftovers are scary. Funny, I dont think I ever watched the weather channel until about a year ago. They have gotten just about as bad as the regular news in terms of creating hysteria. I appreciate the warnings and all the hard work they do tracking the systems, but my goodness they know how to keep you glued to the station! Between my "local on the 8's", the updates on Florida, Hurricane coverage, and interviews with the Hurricane experts I'm in a frenzy before 9am! I've learned so much about the weather this past year I have often thought I might have enjoyed studying to be a meteorologist! That is, until I see the job assignments these reporters get.

Have you watched this? I dont know if it is only our local coverage or if it is shown across the nation, but these reporters EARN their money. It all starts a few days before the storm. Sweet little Stephanie Abrams is seen standing on the coast of Florida in a cute little t-shirt reporting on how the storm is due to strike later that evening. The wind is gusting to 20-30 miles an hour and her beautiful hair blows a little in the wind. As the hours pass the weather intensifies and by the time the eye of the storm is upon her, Stephanie is a mess. They've got her out in blinding rain...at one point she even screams into her mic "THE RAIN FEELS LIKE SHARDS OF GLASS STRIKING MY FACE RIGHT NOW." She can barely keep her hooded "Weather Channel" jacket on as 70 mile an our winds toss her around. Later they have her prove to us just how strong the winds can be (as if we dont already get the idea.) She has two producers holding onto her ankles while she stands between two buildings to demonstrate how the wind grows stronger if it finds a pocket such as this. "I'VE GOT MY PRODUCERS HOLDING ME DOWN AS I LEAN AGAINST THE WIND BETWEEN THESE TWO BUILDINGS" she cries! "IF THEY WEREN'T HOLDING ON TO ME I WOULD LITERALLY BE BLOWN OVER! THIS IS WHY YOU JUST DON'T RISK GOING OUT IN THESE STORMS!" Really? I certainly dont need Stephanie risking her life to get that picture.

Anyway, I sat and pondered the crazy weather we've been having, the crazy election that is almost upon us, the crazy illness we were all enduring, and the crazy way Stephanie Abrams risks her life to bring us live coverage of "Hurricane such-and-such" and realized.....I have no control over anything. It's not for me to control. I have to trust that God above is working things out according to His will. And usually, once I reach that point, life begins to become normal again.